The Phoenix Team (1980)
The Phoenix Team was a Canadian drama series that aired on CBC Television in 1980. Starring Don Francks and Elizabeth Shepherd, the show featured eight one-hour adventure dramas centered on former spies drawn back into action by circumstance. Shepherd portrayed Valerie Koester, a British secret service agent who enlists the unofficial help of her ex-lover, David Brook, played by Francks. Once a top Canadian agent during the Cold War, Brook became disillusioned with high-tech espionage and was relegated to a desk job. Both Brook and Koester, known for their nonconformist attitudes, opposed the overly bureaucratic Graydon, played by Brian Linehan, and partnered with the sympathetic General, portrayed by Mavor Moore, head of the Canadian secret service.
- Stanley Colbert
Country: CA
Language: En
Runtime: 60
Season 1:
A former Canadian agent (David) relegated to the Filing and Records Department accidentally meets a former British agent (Val) with whom he frequently collaborated in the "old days". He is approached by a defecting Soviet agent with secrets to sell and asks Val's assistance in verifying the story. Brian Linehan, making his television acting debut, is Graydon, David's tough chief who has little use or respect for David and his generation of agents, preferring to use the highly computerized technology at his disposal.
When their old friend and colleague is killed, Brook and Val try to track down his killer. Their relationship is threatened because the son, also an agent, falls in love with Valerie, who is attracted to him as well.
Val is working undercover to try and determine who is stealing scientific secrets from a famous scientist. When Val shoots the scientist's brother, who is only using him, she is removed from the case. Disobeying orders, she continues to work to clear her name. The scientist has a formula which has very positive medical uses but can also be made into an offensive weapon.
This episode concerns a young black communications officer in Brook's office who believes that he will never attain his dream of becoming a field operative, because of racial prejudice against him. Brook and Val are with Jerome and his wife Grace when they take part in a demonstration against racial injustice. A counter demonstration breaks out in which Grace is critically injured. Brook and Val, in investigating an organization called the Canadian Patriot Society, discover that members of the Ku Klux Klan are in Canada stirring up fear and dissent.
When his barber abruptly vanishes during his haircut, Brook starts investigating. Along with Val, they expose a complex scheme by Arabs to gain control of a major department store chain.
After his girlfriend, a British agent, is killed in Hungary, a veteran agent disappears for three months. When he surfaces, he asks Brook for help, thinking that the Canadian authorities are pursuing him. When Brook tries to bring him into Canada safely, the agent is killed. Val is on the case as well, and Brook believes that she may be behind the whole affair.
